Hello,
Actually, this port is a survival initiative. I was part of a VMS port
from Alpha to Itanium, which was finally launched... the month Adacore
decided to stop its support.
I had long negociations with Quentin Ochem in France, hoping to get the
Adacore compiler even without support, and the answer has been no.
Because this involved a crash of our port project, I took the
initiative of 'doing something'. Quentin Ochem introduced Adalabs to me
and I took the risk of rebuilding from sources the compiler. In less
than six months Adalabs has been able to do the job. Choice of gcc 4.7
has been a technology choice to go forward as quickly as possible.
My deal with the final customer was: you pay the fees you'd payed to
Adacore, and we guaranty your perimeter. So we did the rebuild with 2
contracts support investment. It's not good business, it's just survival
kit. I don't know how all others Gnat Pro VMS users will survive, but
I'm opened on any negociation with Adacore to help them, if Adacore
helps transfering revenue of their support to help making my survival
kits survive.
I unsderstand Adacore could think about VMS ecosystem for Ada as not
good business. It could be very different for a very little company like
mine, specialized for decades on VMS and involved in VMS renewal from
VSI (VMS Software International). My understanding of the AdaCore
initiative is it has been finding a way to keep Ada alive, so we share
the same values, and I can help the VMS Ada segment survive.
Anything can be imagined, why not, as you said, to do some github push
of the port realized with the help of AdaLabs? why not ending the absurd
situation of rebuilding a compiler which already exists, and building
together a partnership -with no cost for Adacore, but some interests for us?
Anyway - and it is the answer about support - my company (pia-sofer) has
definitivly decided to maintain an Ada compiler for VMS. Today I pushed
on internet our survival kit: www.vmsadaall.org. Its life will depend on
number of adopters, friendly recommandations, and for sure, fruits from
this discution.
Because I'm a little bit new in the Ada ecosystem, I took contacts in
France with french experts who, if necessary, I will be able to call for
help for support (http://www.adalog.fr Jean-Pierre Rosen is The ada
French expert) and Novasys (http://www.novasys-ingenierie.com about 40
Ada experienced software experts).
Best regards,
Gérard Calliet, pia-sofer ceo
www.pia-sofer.com
+33 670 716 179
Le 16/05/2017 à 09:29, Arnaud Charlet a écrit :
Also I forgot to mention: I would recommend putting your GCC 4.7 based
port on e.g. github so that other people can benefit from it, since putting
this code base in gcc.gnu.org isn't on the table as per David's emails. I
think that would be the best compromise.
Arno
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